Skynyrd ain’t our Enemy…
I recently published a post entitled An Inconvenient Truth the subject of which was the recent controversy involving Southern Rock legends Lynyrd Skynyrd interview with CNN their distancing of themselves from the Confederate Battle Flag, fan outrage, and Gary Rossington’s (last original member of Lynyrd Skynyrd) clarification and pledge to keep flying the flag at their live shows.
Today I want to take the discussion in a new direction, one that will most likely get me as much or more hate mail than it will positive responses. That being said, this is what I feel, and this is what I feel is right to say.
Michael Givens, Commander in Chief of the Sons of Confederate Veterans
I like most of you was both angered and disappointed when Lynyrd Skynyrd appeared on CNN and declared that they were dissociating themselves from the Confederate Flag, I found their Facebook page and shared my displeasure with them like THOUSANDS of my fellow Southerners and Skynyrd fans did. I was quite please , when Gary Rossington posted his statement clarifying his position on the flag stating that:
“I wanted to clarify the discussion of the Confederate Flag in our recent CNN interview. Myself, the past members and the present members (that are from the South), are all extremely proud of our heritage and being from the South. We know what the Dixie flag represents and its heritage; the Civil War was fought over States rights.
We still utilize the Confederate (Rebel) flag on stage every night in our shows, we are and always will be a Southern American Rock band, first and foremost. We also utilize the state flag of Alabama and the American flag as well, ‘cause at the end of the day, we are all Americans. I only stated my opinion that the confederate flag, at times, was unfairly being used as a symbol by various hate groups, which is something that we don’t support the flag being used for. The Confederate flag means something more to us, Heritage not Hate”
It was good to know that so many of us spoke out and it was even better that somebody listened. Gary Rossington listened and tried to make things right, now where I come from, that’s all a man can do , or be expected to do. So why are so many of my Southern brothers in the ranks of the Sons of Confederate Veterans still raking him over the coals?
Michael Givens, Commander in Chief of the Sons of Confederate Veterans could never be described as a simple administrator, or a bureacrat within the ranks of the 31,000 that make up the Sons. He is an Independent film maker, he is articulate, proactive and thinks outside of the box in his duties. In short his has been an excellent commander but in the case of Lynyrd Skynyrd, specifically Gary Rossington’s statements he is wrong. Responding to Rossington’s statement he left the following comment in the comments section at the band’s website, www.lynyrdskynyrd.com stating:
“Dear Gary, Lynyrd Skynyrd, management, `et alia’,
I am the Commander-in-Chief of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. We are an organization, chartered in 1896 by veterans of the War for Southern Independence for the purpose of promoting the true history and principles of the Confederate soldiers’ cause. On behalf of our 31,000 members I write you today to express our deep sadness and concern over your present stance toward our venerable banner of the South. Your use of the flag in a manner that is up lifting and not aligned with any form of hate has been a stalwart defense of the flag’s true symbolism for many years. We appreciate and applaud your past efforts on behalf of our common ancestors.
Our biggest concern comes from your statement on the 8th of September 2012 to CNN. You disclosed, “But I think through the years, you know, people like the KKK and Skinheads and people have kind of kidnapped the dixie rebel flag from the southern tradition and the heritage of the soldiers.” Sir, our ancestors wrote the definition of that flag with their blood and when they furled the flag at the last battle they tucked their God-given liberty inside. The KKK and the Skinheads do not define our flag any more than the NAACP or any other hate group.
I am sure you do not agree with their hateful views of our flag, therefore I must ask you, who will stand up for the TRUTH, if not you and if not me? The answer is no one and without us the truth will be buried with the American Confederate flag. That is why we must not capitulate to their nancy demands.
Like many men in my organization, your music has been the soundtrack of my life. Your songs have helped define my own identity and Southernness. I have been a fan from the beginning. I was at the second to the last concert of the original band in Johnson City, Tennessee. All my best friends were at the Greenville, South Carolina concert a few days later. Then, our lives were changed forever—some much more than others. We have always been there for you. Your fans have not let you down. Do not let us down.
My fear is that you are living the song, WORKING FOR THE MCA and that Lynyrd Skynyrd has become the subject of a re-branding effort that hopes to make a kinder, gentler Lynyrd Skynyrd. I worked in the ad world for twenty years; re-branding’s not what we need. We need the honest and courageous Lynyrd Skynyrd.
Stay true to your people.
Please fell free to contact me if I may help. I wish you the very best and remain,
Respectfully yours,
Michael Givens Commander-in-Chief Sons of Confederate Veterans scv.org michaelgivens.com”
This was a good statement, a proper statement, and it should have stopped there, however; since making the statement he has also added :
“They still have not put it back in merchandise and the fact that they capitulated in the first place continues the acid rain of angst.”
Commander Givens has also seemingly become obsessed with a few nameless individuals in the comments (all 53 of them) section on the band’s website www.lynyrdskynyrd.com stating: “My letter to Skynyrd has brought out the loons. Y’all might want to chime in”, as well as being obsessed with the the moderators on the site.
Sir, perhaps Gary Rossington did some soul searching after the CNN interview and the backlash from the fans. The end result is that the band will once again fly the flag that has been the symbol of the band for over 40 years, and our heritage for 150 years.
You , me, or anyone else for that matter has no right to demand what kind of merchandise they sell. The free market will determine the demand. Isn’t that what our ancestors fought the war to begin with? Besides, Gary Rossington isn’t telling us what merchandise to sell.
While you have been trying to bring Lynyrd Skynyrd under the heel, a major developement has occurred in Alabama. The Herald Standard is reporting that:
“Council members in an Alabama city voted Tuesday to stop a group’s work on a new monument honoring a Confederate general who was an early leader in the Ku Klux Klan.
The Selma City Council voted 4-0 with two members abstaining to stop all work on the monument to Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest until the courts decide whether the city or a Confederate heritage group owns the cemetery property where the monument would be rebuilt.
Demonstrations by civil rights groups about 10 years ago led to the relocation of a Forrest monument from outside a city building near downtown to a section of a city cemetery honoring Confederate war dead. But Forrest’s bust was removed and apparently stolen from atop a 7-foot granite memorial earlier this year, and efforts to rebuild it have drawn protests and calls by civil rights activists not to replace it.
Detractors say Forrest traded black people like cattle, massacred black Union soldiers and joined the early Ku Klux Klan. His defenders dispute much of that and counter with stories that depict him as a protector of slave families and defender of the weak who resigned from the KKK”
I ask you this; Who is more of a threat to our heritage? A group of friends who admit they were wrong and moves forward, or a group of well organized individuals, who will never admit when they are wrong and will not be happy until they destroy everything we hold dear?
-
- Michael Givens, Commander in Chief of the Sons of Confederate Veterans
-
- Johnny Van Zant of Lynyrd Skynyrd
Commander Givens, I respect you, but I would respect you a hell of a lot more if you got off your computer, stop having a teenage-style chatroom smack down with a nameless idiot and get your ass down to Alabama to confront the REAL threats to our heritage. respectfully,Clint E. LacyMember Colonel John T. Coffee Camp #1934, Osceola, Missouri
An Inconvenient Truth; Liberal Media ignores Skynyrd Pledge to Keep Flying Confederate Flag
The members of Lynyrd Skynyrd probably weren’t expecting a firestorm when they agreed to be interviewed by CNN’s Fredricka, but that’s exactly what transpired when members of the group stated that they would no longer fly the Confederate flag at their shows. The interview, which aired Sept 9th on CNN caused an uproar in the Southern community , especially among long time Skynyrd fans.
The interview went viral almost as soon as it finished airing and angry fans flooded the group’s Facebook and Twitter accounts expressing dissatisfaction with the group’s decision to distance themselves from the flag.
The mainstream media was almost giddy with self adoration. They were no doubt, patting theirselves on the back for what they perceived as another victory in bringing down “the old South”. What they weren’t expecting was the effect that an angry fan base would have on the group’s decision distance itself from the Confederate flag, but that’s exactly what happened and at least one member of the group listened.
Gary Rossington, the last original member of Lynyrd Skynyrd released a statement on Sept 21’st stating:
“I wanted to clarify the discussion of the Confederate Flag in our recent CNN interview. Myself, the past members and the present members (that are from the South), are all extremely proud of our heritage and being from the South. We know what the Dixie flag represents and its heritage; the Civil War was fought over States rights. We still utilize the Confederate (Rebel) flag on stage every night in our shows, we are and always will be a Southern American Rock band, first and foremost. We also utilize the state flag of Alabama and the American flag as well, ‘cause at the end of the day, we are all Americans. I only stated my opinion that the confederate flag, at times, was unfairly being used as a symbol by various hate groups, which is something that we don’t support the flag being used for. The Confederate flag means something more to us, Heritage not Hate…
-Gary Rossington ”
While the left-wing media was quick to spread the news of “their victory” ( Skynyrd’s decision to distance themselves from all things Confederate), they were less enthusiastic to spread the news of Rossington’s clarification that they will still fly the Confederate Battle Flag at their shows. In fact “news organizations” such as The Atlantic Wire decided to ignore Rossington’s statement all together.
The very same day that Rossington released his statement that the group WAS NOT going to stop flying the Confederate Battle Flag at their live shows The Atlantic Wire published an article entitled “Racists Ruined the Confederate Flag for Lynyrd Skynyrd” !
The article states that: “The reason reporters are scouring online forums, fanpage comments, and Twitter is because the last surviving original member of the hard-to-spell band which brought you Southern anthems “Free Bird” and “Sweet Home Alabama”, Gary Rossington, has made a pledge to stop associating the band (himself) with the Confederate flag. It’s a big move since part of the reason the Confederate flag has remained popular (at least in rock n roll) was because Lynyrd Skynyrd’s use of the flag in concerts and memorabilia (back when Rossington didn’t think it was associated with the KKK and raging racists)”
I find it hard to believe that The Atlantic Wire author of this article had absolutely no idea that Rossington had clarified his statements about the Confederate flag and his pledge to keep flying it at their shows, or the fact that Rossington stated the war was not about slavery.
Just in case you were wondering, no The Atlantic Wire has not updated the article to reflect Rossington’s clarification about the Confederate flag. It is a little more than ironic , when one considers that when Rossington’s statements about the flag were published on Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Facebook page it received 2108 positive comments within 5 hours of its posting.
Are we really supposed to believe the Atlantic Wire had no knowledge of this? Of course they did, but they were already in celebration mode, they couldn’t spoil the celebration with a healthy dose of the truth could they?
Still, some aren’t so quick to forgive the group even after Rossington pledged to keep flying the flag. Michael Givens, Commander in Chief of the Sons of Confederate Veterans released the following statement today on his Facebook page:
“Dear Gary, Lynyrd Skynyrd, management, `et alia’,
I am the Commander-in-Chief of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. We are an organization, chartered in 1896 by veterans of the War for Southern Independence for the purpose of promoting the true history and principles of the Confederate soldiers’ cause. On behalf of our 31,000 members I write you today to express our deep sadness and concern over your present stance toward our venerable banner of the South. Your use of the flag in a manner that is up lifting and not aligned with any form of hate has been a stalwart defense of the flag’s true symbolism for many years. We appreciate and applaud your past efforts on behalf of our common ancestors.
Our biggest concern comes from your statement on the 8th of September 2012 to CNN. You disclosed, “But I think through the years, you know, people like the KKK and Skinheads and people have kind of kidnapped the dixie rebel flag from the southern tradition and the heritage of the soldiers.” Sir, our ancestors wrote the definition of that flag with their blood and when they furled the flag at the last battle they tucked their God-given liberty inside. The KKK and the Skinheads do not define our flag any more than the NAACP or any other hate group.
I am sure you do not agree with their hateful views of our flag, therefore I must ask you, who will stand up for the TRUTH, if not you and if not me? The answer is no one and without us the truth will be buried with the American Confederate flag. That is why we must not capitulate to their nancy demands.
Like many men in my organization, your music has been the soundtrack of my life. Your songs have helped define my own identity and Southernness. I have been a fan from the beginning. I was at the second to the last concert of the original band in Johnson City, Tennessee. All my best friends were at the Greenville, South Carolina concert a few days later. Then, our lives were changed forever—some much more than others. We have always been there for you. Your fans have not let you down. Do not let us down.
My fear is that you are living the song, WORKING FOR THE MCA and that Lynyrd Skynyrd has become the subject of a re-branding effort that hopes to make a kinder, gentler Lynyrd Skynyrd. I worked in the ad world for twenty years; re-branding’s not what we need. We need the honest and courageous Lynyrd Skynyrd.
Stay true to your people.
Please fell free to contact me if I may help. I wish you the very best and remain,
Respectfully yours,
Michael Givens
Commander-in-Chief
Sons of Confederate Veterans
scv.org
michaelgivens.com”
webmaster
12th Annual Coffee Camp Tour & Heritage Dinner
Don’t miss the 12 Annual Coffee Camp Historical Tour and Heritage Dinner April 21, 2012 in Osceola , Missouri. This year’s keynote speaker will be Donnie Kennedy co-author of the best selling book ” The South was Right”.
Click on the link for details!
Goodbye Bazz
It is with a heavy heart that I have to report the death of Bazz Childress , one of the most beloved activists in the South. From Kirk Lyons at the Southern Legal Resource:
“We are told that Ba…sil Dwayne “Bazz” Childress died at his home earlier tonight. Bazz Ky Division SCV Cdr, and a member of the Bd of Directors of the SLRC, KY Chairman of the League of the South as well as plaintiff in a lawsuit against a Wingate/Wyndham Hotel that had him arrested for having a Confederate flag in his hotel window at the National 2008 SCV Reunion. The case, swinefully and illegally dismissed by a Superior Court “Judge”, was on appeal to the NC Court of Appeals, where Bazz expected to smack the hotel owner again, and make a little law. Bazz was a good friend, far seeing political thinker and Christian gentleman, he will be sorely missed.”
Always dedicated, always in the fight and never backed down. Thank You Bazz for all that you did. Let Bazz be an example to all of us to follow. Special Thanks to PoP Aaron for letting us know of Bazz’s passing.
New Officers Elected for the Col. John T. Coffee Camp # 1934
The following are your new officers for the Colonel John T. Coffee Camp #1934:
Commander:
Jared Lawler
660-477-3449
1’st Lt. Commander:
Harold Simmons
417-637-2068
2cd Lt. Commander
George Eberhardt
Adjutant:
Willie Lawler
Past Commander/genealogist/ Newsletter Editor:
Gary Ayres
Press Officer/Webmaster:
Clint E. Lacy
573-208-5916
Chaplain:
Tim Mitchell
Chaplain:
Bob Phillips
Chaplain:
Larry Wheeler
Aid-de-Camp:
Garry Keene
Aid-de-Camp:
Mark Locke
Aid-de-Camp:
David Reif
Quarter Master:
B.J. Montgomery
Surgeon:
Dr. Dennis Hood, DVM
Congratulations to All! I bet we are the only camp in Missouri, perhaps nationally that has 3 Chaplains, 3 Aid-de-Camps, 3 Commanders, a Quartermaster and a Surgeon. The Coffee Camp, is starting to look more like an army!- webmaster
Record Attendance at the Eleventh Annual Coffee Camp Heritage Dinner
Paul R. Petersen, Mast Sgt USMC (ret)
The Colonel John T. Coffee Camp #1934, Sons of Confederate Veterans played host to over 230 attendees on April 30th of this year at its eleventh annual heritage dinner, setting a new record for the event.
This year’s guest speaker was retired USMC Master Sergent Paul R Petersen, award winning author of “Quantrill of Missouri”, “Quantrill in Texas” and the newly released “Quantrill at Lawrence”.
Petersen covered a wide variety of topics in his lecture. He is what many consider an expert on Missouri Partisan Ranger, William Quantrill and revealed many previously known facts about the Missouri guerrilla fighter, his tactics and how they affect modern day warfare. A veteran of the Vietnam War, Operation Desert Storm and Operation Iraqi freedom, Petersen emphasized that Quantrill was a legitimate military leader. So much so that his methods of warfare are taught to our military today.
Mr. Petersen emphasized that he has researched over 150 newspapers of the Civil War era relating to Quantrill and that they reveal many facts that previous historians have ignored in their writings, Petersen goes so far as to make the argument that many of the facts of Quantrill’s raid on Lawrence, Ks were deliberately misrepresented. One of those facts is the popular belief that Quantrill burned over 300 buildings on his raid to Lawrence, Petersen noted that City of Lawrence, Ks own visitor’s bureau lists a total of only 85 buildings destroyed during the raid.
“Lawrence , Kansas was a legitimate military target that housed over 1000 Union troops at any given time”, Petersen said.
Also attending the event was a reporter from the Kansas City Star who asked “was the Civil War about slavery or states rights?” at which time Mr. Petersen answered her question by saying, “In many of the pictures of the Union Army , the officers were in the front row, followed by the white enlisted me and behind them, the black enlisted men. Quantrill had a black scout by the name of John Noland, the men in Quantrill’s command referred to Noland as a man among men and after the war when he died, he had all white pallbearers at his funeral”.
During his speech Petersen also made note that war is an ugly business and that we need to support the men currently fighting for our country, at which time he received a standing ovation.
Mr. Petersens books are published by Pelican and can be found at all major bookstores and on the web.
In North, Civil War sites ‘forgotten’
http://www.semissourian.com/story/1719652.html
“FRAMINGHAM, Mass. — The gravesite of a Union Army major general sits largely forgotten in a small cemetery along the Massachusetts Turnpike.
A piece of the coat worn by President Abraham Lincoln when he was assassinated rests quietly in a library attic in a Boston suburb. It’s shown upon request, a rare occurrence.
A monument honoring one of the first official Civil War black units stands in a busy intersection in front of the Massachusetts Statehouse, barely gaining notice from the hustle of tourists and workers who pass by each day.
As the nation marks the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, states in the old South — the side that lost — are hosting elaborate re-enactments, intricate memorials, even formal galas highlighting the war’s persistent legacy in the region. But for many states in the North — the side that won — only scant, smaller events are planned in an area of the nation that helped sparked the conflict but now, historians say, struggles to acknowledge it.
“It’s almost like it never happened,” said Annie Murphy, executive director of the Framingham History Center in Framingham, Mass. “But all you have to do is look around and see evidence that it did. It’s just that people aren’t looking here”
There are many interesting observations in this article. While the South is ridiculed as a whole with such stereo-types as being, poor, backward, stupid, etc. The North is portrayed as being progressive, morally superior and intelligent.
The South is not “stupid” or “backward” but it has something the federal government could never take away during its invasion, occupation and reconstruction of the Southern states and that is its fondness for tradition, heritage and culture. As the article states there are many reasons for the North’s complacency in regards to its heritage:
”
To be sure, some Northern states have Civil War events planned and have formed commemoration commissions. Connecticut’s 150th Civil War Commemoration was set up in 2008 and has scheduled a number of events and exhibits until 2015. Vermont, the first state to outlaw slavery, started a similar commission last year to coordinate activities statewide and in towns.
And some Massachusetts small not-for-profit and historic groups are trying to spark interest through research, planned tours and town events.
But observers say those events pale in comparison to those in the South.
That difference highlights Northern states’ long struggle with how to remember a war that was largely fought on Southern soil, said Steven Mintz, a Columbia University history professor and author of “Moralists and Modernizers: America’s Pre-Civil War Reformers.” For Northern states like Massachusetts, Mintz said revisiting the Civil War also means revisiting their own unsolved, uncomfortable issues like racial inequality after slavery. ”
To acknowledge the North’s issues with “racial inequality” before, during and after the Civil War, would be to knock down the pillars of the facade that the North went to war for racial equality. Acknowledgement of the North’s issues with “racial inequality” would lead to the acknowledgement that the Federal Government invaded the South to protect its flow of tax revenue from the South via import tariffs.
Most wars are fought for money, political power , protectionism and control of natural resources, this war was no different-webmaster
Kennedy Brothers interviewed by Al Jazeera
Kevin Levin is at it again… this time he has turned his wrath toward the Kennedy Brothers (authors of the best selling book “The South was Right!” Their crime? Apparently being interviewed by Al Jazeera.
Levin writes:
“his is an interesting little report on the commemorative events surrounding the sesquicentennial of Fort Sumter. A number of people are interviewed, but what I find so interesting is the difference in tone between NPS interpreter, Michael Allen and the Kennedy brothers (aka the Civil War’s Statler and Waldorf), who identify themselves as “Southern Historians.” I just love that reference. It has nothing to do with regional identification because if it did they would have to include hundreds of historians who were all born and raised in the South. I live in the South. Am I a Southern Historian in their eyes? You get my point. No, that identification marks a certain way of looking at the history of the South and its tone is overly defensive and presentist – a perspective that I suspect does not reflect the views of most white and black southerners. The language used reflects very little interest in the nineteenth century itself. Just listen to these two describe the federal government as tariff and money obsessed and intent on going around the world to oppress innocent people at the point of a bloody bayonet.
You certainly leave with a sense of their emotional connection to the issue, but it’s not much of an explanation.
The bigger problem here is that the media’s insistence on interviewing people like the Kennedy brothers reinforces the assumption that this is the Southern view of the war. They may be entertaining and they may refer to themselves as Southern historians, but they do not speak for the South.”
The Kennedy brothers don’t speak for the South, but Leven thinks HE does? Hardly.
He was recently interviewed by Patricia Gay, who is a reporter with the Weston Forum a Connecticut newspaper about the Virginia textbook controversy in regards to its mentioning of Black Confederate soldiers.
In it Levin calls the mention of Black Confederates in the textbooks, “mindboggling” and “disappointing.”
I think there is the distinct possibility that what Levin finds truly mindboggling and dissappointing is that while he is garnering attention in a small northeastern U.S. newspaper for trying to discredit the textbook company and the Sons of Confederate Veterans, the Kennedy Brothers are garnering world-wide attention by speaking about the real reasons for the War of Northern Aggression and how they can be compared and applied to current events.-Webmaster
April , 2011 Twelfth Star Newsletter
The April , 2011 Twelfth Star newsletter is now posted on the server. Gary has done an excellent job as usual!
Click on the link below to view (in PDF format)
“Quantrill No Ruffian”
“William Clarke Quantrill, notorious Civil War guerrilla, was not a ruffian type man who frightened small boys, the late Thomas J. Walker often told his children.
Walker, an Independence druggist many years, was a 4-year-old when Quantrill came to the Morgan Walker farm near Blue Springs one December day in 1860.
Mrs. William H. Childers of Lee’s Summit, the former Henrietta Walker who grew up in Independence, said her father often remarked that as a child he “ate dinner at the same table with Quantrill” at his grandfather’s farm.
Donald Hale’s mention of the Quantrill role in a raid planned on the Morgan Walker farm reminded Mrs. Childers of her father’s stories. Hale gave the talk Jan. 6 in one of the series of illustrated lectures held at the Independence square courthouse under sponsorship of the archives committee of the Jackson County Historical Society.
“The old farm was north of Blue Springs on what is now Highway No. 7,” Mrs. Childers said. “Great-grandfather, who was a blacksmith as well as a farmer, had largelandholdings and many slaves.”
Hale said Quantrill was opposed to slavery when he came to Kansas as a young teacher, but speculation has it that he became a rebel when he saw bloody acts of violence against Missouri slaveholders by the abolitionists from across the border in Kansas.
He rode into Jackson County with a band of young Quaker abolitionists from Lawrence to steal slaves at the Walker farm. Scouting ahead, Quantrill ended up by telling Walker’s son, Andrew, of the impending raid.
“The story goes,” Mrs. Childers said, “that Uncle Andrew, then 24, took Quantrill to see his father, Morgan Walker, who was my great-grandfather.
“Quantrill was invited to eat dinner with the family while they talked. Morgan Walker asked Quantrill to remove his gun because no one sat at his table wearing a fun. My father, a small boy visiting at his grandfather’s, remembered how Quantrill took off his gun and laid it by the door.
“My father said he didn’t recall having any fear of the famous guerrilla–that he appeared to be a kindly and refined man.
“Quantrill told them of the raid that was to take place that night. Father recalled that they gathered all of the neighbors together to ambush the raiders. He said they probably would have killed them all but that my great-grandmother, Polly Cox Walker, thinking to help the men ambush the raiders by placing a lamp in the window, blinded them instead.”
Thomas J. Walker, the son of John Riley Walker, Morgan’s son, was born in 1856 on a nearby farm. He recalls that the family had to leave Jackson County in 1863 when Order No. 11 forced the eviction of all Southern sympathizers.
“Father often told how his family, with alll the possessions they could pack into a wagon , crossed the Missouri River and went to Nebraska City, Neb., where they lived until the war ended in 1865. Father got his first schooling there.
“When the family returned home they found their homes destroyed. Only one slave cabin was standing on the Morgan Walker farm, all else had been burned and all of the family possessions had been taken.”
Mrs. Childers said that during earlier raids by the Kansas “Red Legs” her great-grandmother had told how she counted homes of five of their neighbors burning at the same time.
“Great-grandmother Walker was a true rebel,” Mrs. Childers said. “I have heard the story how she stood on a fence and waved a Confederate flag as the Union troops filed by. They all expected her to be shot, but she was never harmed.”
Mrs. Childers said her father often told of how he was “arrested” once while riding with uncle and aunt, Ed and Betty Gaddy, when some Union Soldiers marching out of Independence accosted them.
“Uncle Ed Gaddy slipped off the horse and hid in the bushes, knowing that the woman and child would not be harmed. Aunt Betty and father were taken to Liberty. Father said he slept on the floor with the soldiers and that his aunt had sent a Negro boy to tell his mother where he was. They were released the next day, unharmed.”
Thomas Walker opened a drugstore in Blue Springs in the 1880’s. In 1890 he opened a store in Independence on the southeast corner of the square. He sold the store to Mize Peters in 1912.
End of p. 8.
p. 9
Mrs. Childers, like her father, became a pharmacist. Her late husband, William H. Childers, also was a pharmacist and they worked together many years.
Morgan Walker and his wife, and a number of other relatives, as well as their slaves are buried in the old family cemetery on the old Morgan Walker farm, now owned by Rodney Choplin.”
Article printed in the Historical Society Journal of Jackson County (Missouri), March 1974, Vol XVI, No. 1, pp. 8 and 9.
Want to know more about “Quantrill of Missouri”? Then don’t miss the Col. John T. Coffee Camp’s 11th annual Heritage Dinner, featuring Paul R. Petersen , award winning author of “Quantrill of Missouri” , “Quantrill in Texas” and the upcoming book “Quantrill in Kansas” The dinner is free but you must RSVP before April 26, 2011. For information about this event and how to RSVP click on the following link:
Across Our Confederation 
